Mustangs Suffer First Loss of Season Friday at Hands of Cal State Fullerton

Friday, April 9

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

11 A.M.

Cal State Fullerton

Photo by: Owen Main

Mustangs Suffer First Loss of Season Friday at Hands of Cal State Fullerton

4/9/2021 5:06:00 PM | Women's Tennis

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Redshirt sophomore Emily Ackerman (pictured) won both her singles and doubles matches to remain unbeaten in both this season, but the Cal Poly women's tennis team dropped its first contest of the season Friday, losing to visiting Cal State Fullerton 3-4.

The Mustangs (10-1, 4-1 BWC), who continued their annual tradition of wearing pink uniforms at Friday's match in honor of former Mustang Susanne Boyden's mother and all those battling breast cancer, took the doubles point over the Titans (9-5, 3-2 BWC) to begin the day.

At the No. 1 spot, Ackerman and redshirt junior MacKenzie Worsnop continued their winning ways with a 7-6(6) victory to improve to 2-0 together this season. Ackerman is now 8-0 overall in doubles this year. The No. 2 duo of redshirt freshmen Melissa LaMette and Delanie Dunkle then clinched the doubles point after a 7-5 win to push their record to 7-3 together this year.

In singles, Ackerman had an impressive 6-2, 6-0 victory at the No. 3 spot to put Cal Poly ahead 2-0. Ackerman now has a team-best record of 10-0 this season.

After Cal State Fullerton won at the No. 1 spot, Dunkle won her match at the No. 2 spot 6-4, 6-4 to give the Mustangs a 3-1 lead. She now has a record of 8-2 this year and is 4-0 in conference matches.

The Titans then won matches at the No. 6 followed by the No. 5 spots to tie the match 3-3. At the No. 4 spot, redshirt junior Grace Olyphant found herself down 1-5 in third set before battling back to tie it 5-5. Down 5-6, she then won another game to force a deciding tiebreaker in which Fullerton took it 7-4.

The loss snaps the Mustangs 10 match win streak to start the season. With a 4-1 Big West record, Cal Poly is now in second place behind 4-0 UC Santa Barbara.

The Mustangs will host UC San Diego on Saturday at 11 a.m. for senior day. It will be the final home match of the season and the final match at Mustang Tennis Complex for MacKenzie Worsnop and Grace Olyphant.